The main reason that women's breastroke drop from a cut off of 1:20 in 1993 versus 1:17 in the 100 yard for the top ten times is that a different generation is a little faster than those that swam in the 1960's as kids. So the person who was top ten at 1:17 this year, swam faster than last year. The national qualifying time was 1:27 which was 10 seconds slower and as you stated Matt, this is a three year average and it takes time for this to drop. On the other hand, the 200 yard is a lot slower for qualifying times because us masters have trouble swimming good 200 swims outside of freestyle. As for what the time was in 1993 for 100 yard breastroke for national qualfying I don't know. I just play around the computer and look at the preceding top 10 times going back in time. However, I'm not currently able to find this. I also think that 100 yard fly for 45 to 49 women drop from 1:10 to 1:07 during the same time period.
Santa Clara in 1993(ten years ago) had NQTs. I think it was the first National meet with NQTs. NQTs went into effect in 1992, but I dont know if they were used in 92 - they were used in 93.
In 1992, the womens 45-49 100 Fly, the Tenth place time was 1:20.42 which would translate to about 1:29.36 NQT for 93. For the first couple of years there was a different way of calculating the NQTs. It was the slowest 10th place time in that event from the previous three years' National Championships. (if you are interested in any particular time for the 93-98 let me know - you can compute them also by looking at the top ten section of the USMS site) In 1993 Jackie Marr, 49, had the tenth fastest time at 1:14.97.
If you look at a graph of the NQT time over time, I think you will see that when the leading edge of the boomer generation hits an age group, the NQTs for that event drop (boomers are just starting to hit the 55-59age group). There are a couple of reasons for that. One being that Masters has been around since the boomers hit adulthood and could continue in an organized swimming program after leaving AAU swimming.
michael
Santa Clara in 1993(ten years ago) had NQTs. I think it was the first National meet with NQTs. NQTs went into effect in 1992, but I dont know if they were used in 92 - they were used in 93.
In 1992, the womens 45-49 100 Fly, the Tenth place time was 1:20.42 which would translate to about 1:29.36 NQT for 93. For the first couple of years there was a different way of calculating the NQTs. It was the slowest 10th place time in that event from the previous three years' National Championships. (if you are interested in any particular time for the 93-98 let me know - you can compute them also by looking at the top ten section of the USMS site) In 1993 Jackie Marr, 49, had the tenth fastest time at 1:14.97.
If you look at a graph of the NQT time over time, I think you will see that when the leading edge of the boomer generation hits an age group, the NQTs for that event drop (boomers are just starting to hit the 55-59age group). There are a couple of reasons for that. One being that Masters has been around since the boomers hit adulthood and could continue in an organized swimming program after leaving AAU swimming.
michael
